Farr 40 World Championship

2005 Worlds Final Results

2005 Rolex Farr 40 World Championship
Sydney, AUS
March 1 - 4, 2005

Evolution clinches the championship on countback

Richard Perini's Evolution won the Rolex Farr 40 Worlds by a hair's breadth from fellow Aussie Neville Crichton on Shockwave. With both teams finishing equal on 66 points, it was Evolution's race win in the windy conditions two days earlier that gave her overall victory ahead of Shockwave. And just a point further behind the two Aussies was the Italian boat TWT, whose 6th place in the final race dragged her right back into contention.

Peter Reggio squeezed out three races in light and fickle conditions today on the rolling swell of the Pacific Ocean. Evolution extended her lead from Day 3 of just 1 point to a much healthier 12 points going into the last race, thanks to scores of 9- 2. The championship seemed all but secured for Perini, but the wind had reached its most unpredictable for the finale.

Evolution did not have a great first beat, and rounded the windward mark in 15th, ten places behind Shockwave and three behind TWT. Surely Perini would pull through the fleet and close out the regatta. It certainly appeared so by the leeward gate, with Evolution pulling up to 13th, just two behind TWT and seven behind Shockwave.

Neville Crichton's boat did herself no favours by yielding four places up the final beat to round in 10th place, with TWT among those to have overtaken her. But Evolution was having a terrible time of the conditions, falling to 19th. She was still leading the championship but she could not afford any more mistakes. However, the final run saw her fall to 21st as she lurched her way towards the finish from out to sea. She scraped across the line just seven seconds ahead of Panther. Seven seconds further back and Perini would have come 3rd overall.

So close was the championship that Perini says it was a good 10 minutes after the finish before he knew that he had won the Rolex Farr 40 Worlds. “We like keeping the crowds in suspense,” said a much-relieved Perini afterwards, who admitted he hadn't enjoyed the last race one bit.

Tactician Hamish Pepper said: “Evolution didn't spark up like she usually does. The stress levels were pretty high, and we were just trying to figure out what we needed to do down that last run.”

Pepper's opposite number on Team Shockwave, Michael Coxon, said the crew were delighted with their performance despite having missed the world title by such a tantalising margin. “You can look back on plenty of times when you could have gained that extra point,” he said, “but I'm sure Evolution and TWT can do the same. We started off the week in 9th and we climbed the rankings every day.”

Marco Rodolfi's TWT team took defeat in good spirits, but were ruing their poor start to the final day when they scored a 16th place. They were certainly one of the few overseas boats to be able to match the Aussies on their tricky home waters. Last year's World Champion Barking Mad earned themselves a consolation prize by winning the final race by almost two minutes, but the American team were deeply disappointed with their 6th place overall.

Tactician Terry Hutchinson said: “I think we sailed better here than we did in San Francisco. You look at the results and that tells a story, but we passed a lot of boats in a lot of these races.” If the World Championship was awarded on how many boats you could pass during the course of a race, then Barking Mad would have won because their ability to climb through the fleet was immense.”

But being over early in one race and other errors prevented the Americans from ever mounting a strong defence of the title. Collectively as a team we have sailed better, but things haven't gone our way,” said Hutchinson. “It's a game of inches, and we've been just the wrong side of those small margins.”

The difficult waves outside Sydney Heads called for maximum concentration from the crew, and it prevented many of the favourites from hitting their stride. It is perhaps significant that the last three World Championships - in Italy, USA and now Australia - have all been won by teams from the host nation. This was particularly the case with the rolling swell of Sydney. “The conditions were certainly a factor,” said Perini of his and Shockwave's success in a strong international fleet of 28 boats. “The Aussie 1 - 2 is just fabulous. What a great result for Australia.”

After the stress of the final day's racing, Richard Perini returned to a triumphant welcome at the Cruising Yacht Club of Australia. Richard de Leyser Managing Director of Rolex Australia presented the winning skipper with a Rolex Yachtmaster in rolesium. Hamish Pepper sprayed the team with champagne and then his skipper was given the traditional dunking as he was thrown off the side of the boat. Perini and the Evolution crew will formally receive the World Championship trophy tonight at a prizegiving reception being held at the Water's Edge Restaurant beneath the Harbour Bridge in Sydney.

Today was the Rolex Race Day. Supporting Sponsors of the Farr 40 Class and Rolex Farr 40 Worlds include Lewmar and North Sails, along with Contributing Sponsor, Club Marine Insurance.

Complete Final Results:

Bow No. Yacht Name Sail Owners Name R1 R2 R3 R4 R5 R6 R7 R8 R9 Total Place
7 Evolution AUS6422 Richard Perini 2 7 1 15 6 3 9 2 21 66 1
1 Team Shockwave AUS5077 Neville Crichton 4 17 2 3 15 6 4 6 9 66 2
19 TWT ITA13711 Marco Rodolfi 14 2 9 1 1 8 16 10 6 67 3
24 Warpath USA69 Steve and Fred Howe 10 3 21 10 3 7 6 1 11 72 4
14 Mascalzone Latino ITA1 Vincenzo Onorato 6 11 4 8 9 18 3 4 12 75 5
21 Barking Mad USA 50995 Jim Richardson 8 14 13 14 4 5 13 8 1 80 6
6 Ichi Ban AUS6038 Matt Allen 1 1 14 20 5 14 10 15 7 87 7
27 Southern Star AUS1770 John Calvert-Jones 13 10 5 13 14 1 1 11 20 88 8
8 Nerone ITA1972 Massimo Mezzaroma/Antonio Sodo Migliori 11 8 11 4 7 9 5 9 25 89 9
10 Morning Glory GR40101 Hasso Plattner 9 6 3 9 10 17 14 20 4 92 10
15 Emotional Hooligan AUS615 Marcus Blackmore 17 4 6 6 13 2 22 5 28 103 11
11 Joe Fly ITA1805 Giovanni Maspero 16 20 10 16 2 15 8 17 3 107 12
13 Norwegian Steam NOR40 Eivind Astrup 18 5 7 7 16 27 17 12 5 114 13
3 Kokomo AUS8883 Lang Walker 5 12 8 17 26 25 20 7 10 130 14
16 Twins 2 FRA 007 Erik Maris 21 15 15 19 18 12 2 13 18 133 15
18 Pegasus USA81818 Philippe Kahn 15 9 15 28 11 10 11 14 24 137 16
20 Brighton Star B2000 David Gotze 22 26 24 2 8 23 19 21 2 147 17
12 Fiamma GBR25R Alessandro Barnaba 7 16 26 26 17 21 12 18 14 157 18
4 Belle Property AUS470 Chris Meehan 19 27 17 22 22 22 23 3 8 1 63 19
28 Sputnik AUS6040 Ivan Wheen 3 18 12 25 19 19 24 23 26 169 20
22 War Games YC222 David Urry 20 19 19 23 12 4 26 27 19 169 21
23 Solution USA4040 John Thomson 12 22 18 18 27 11 28 22 13 171 22
26 Nanoq DEN7217 HRH Crown Prince Frederik 23 21 15 24 28 26 7 16 16 176 23
5 Bobby’s Girl NZL40010 John Melville 28 13 25 12 25 16 21 24 15 179 24
25 Venom USA40063 Brett Neill/Peter Taylor 24 24 27 5 24 13 18 25 23 183 25
17 Phish Food USA50055 Alexis Michas 26 23 22 21 20 20 25 19 17 193 26
2 Panther AUS8001 Steve O'Rourke 25 25 23 11 21 28 15 26 22 196 27
9 Intersell AUS6530 Michael Blumentals 27 28 28 27 23 24 27 28 27 239 28

2019 Farr 40 Worlds

October 2 - 5, 2019
Long Beach Yacht Club
6201 E Appian Way
Long Beach, CA 90803

Worlds info at YachtScoring.com

Entry

Notice of Race

Pre-Worlds
September 28-29
Cabrillo Beach Yacht Club
211 W 22nd St
San Pedro, CA 90731

Pre-Worlds info at YachtScoring.com

Farr 40 Class Association
PO Box 60416
San Diego, CA 92166 USA
Manny Gomez, Farr40 Class Manager
+1-858-245-2662
manny@farr40.org

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